Wylie

Reviews

Force Majeure

By: Addison Wylie Force Majeure has a thought-provoking concept that shocks the audience and the characters involved.  Writer/director Ruben Östlund then proceeds to run his movie around in circles until its green in the face.  It’s a process he continues to repeat until that once interesting premise transforms into an exhausting, ineffective tale. The concept: the ideal family vacations to a picturesque resort.  It’s hinted the husband is business-oriented, so this time away from his job should be…

Reviews

Beyond Clueless

By: Addison Wylie If you grew up watching teen movies or were exposed to the batch of PG-13 high school flicks that flooded cinemas from the 90’s to the early 2000’s, it’s natural to have a repellant reaction to Charlie Lyne’s doc Beyond Clueless. The documentarian intentionally takes your beloved guilty pleasures and dissects them to find running themes.  An introduction using 1996’s The Craft tells us exactly what movie goers are in for, and…

Festival Coverage

Wylie Writes at Toronto After Dark ’14: Wyrmwood and Foxed!

By: Addison Wylie Wyrmwood charges through our senses.  It’s easily the scariest, most effective zombie flick audiences will have seen as of late. Kiah Roache-Turner uses a dangerous form of filmmaking that is rarely seen in modern cinema.  Mostly due to the fact that it’s an insane style that could go belly-up if the audience isn’t ready for its shocking invasiveness. Roache-Turner throws movie goers in the centre of the intense life-or-death face-offs.  He positions…

Reviews

White Bird in a Blizzard

By: Addison Wylie White Bird in a Blizzard hits you with a wallop pivotal enough to make you concussed.  You walk away having appreciated Gregg Araki’s latest film, but it doesn’t entirely settle well, and its difficult to come up with reasonings as to why. Now thinking of it though, the Araki films I’ve caught (Mysterious Skin and Smiley Face) have had the same effect.  Mysterious Skin is a distraught story of a troubled teenage…

Festival Coverage

Wylie Writes at Toronto After Dark ’14: Refuge

By: Addison Wylie A dangerous plague has wiped out most of humanity within wide proximity of Refuge’s main family.  The secluded family has stowed themselves away in their crumbling abode as life around them breaks down and dawns a bleak future. Refuge isn’t a film where the infected are on the hunt for the living.  Andrew Robertson’s slow burn is a study of survival as the human race turns on each other.  Unkempt gangs roam…

Reviews

Listen Up Philip

By: Addison Wylie Alex Ross Perry’s Listen Up Philip is decently crafted by biting dialogue and watchable performances.  However, I’m unsure what audiences are supposed to “get” out of the film. Perry certainly pulls us in with an atmosphere reminiscent of films made during the 70’s.  He has the correct details lined within his style, as well as the rebellious glimmers in his filmmaking.  However, once we’re invested and get on board with the film’s…

Reviews

Mall

By: Addison Wylie I don’t know a heck of a lot about Linkin Park turntablist Joseph Hahn.  His feature film debut Mall could provide some insight;  although I hope I’m mistaken. Hahn could’ve been that someone who grew up resenting authority.  His teenage peers could’ve been burn outs and pot heads who had no aspirations.  Meanwhile, his own observations bloomed into cynical opinions about the culture around him.  To him, he might’ve been the smartest…

Festival Coverage

Wylie Writes at Toronto After Dark ’14: ABCs of Death 2

By: Addison Wylie With recent horror anthologies, it seems as though the first instalment serves as an extreme experimental period.  There’s a foreboding feeling of failure when making a project that draws in different visions from all over a filmmaking pallet, but horror nuts who are true to their craft will let their audacious attitudes plow through anything resembling an obstacle. This was a clear example for the V/H/S series – an easy comparison to…

Reviews

Eternity: The Movie

By: Addison Wylie Not everything in Eternity: The Movie works.  However, filmmaker Ian Thorpe shows audiences that clean comedy leads to the best kind of laughs with this lo-fi send-up to the 1980’s. Barrett Crake plays Todd Lucas, because – I suppose – Jon Heder had a busy schedule.  Lucas is new to the Californian lifestyle.  Instead of one-night stands with bodacious babes, he wishes to escape the business and get to know a girl…

Festival Coverage

Wylie Writes at Toronto After Dark ’14: Time Lapse

By: Addison Wylie The manipulation of time can lend itself to enticing stories and conflicted characters.  Time Lapse would’ve delivered on both of those, but filmmaker Bradley King’s melodramatic presentation robs the audience of anything intriguing. Time Lapse wisely keeps its narrative between three leads.  Those roles are filled out by Matt O’Leary, Danielle Panabaker, and George Finn who all appear and act as if their characters should be a few years older.  Those close-knit…